Acknowledge The Son

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Please remain standing for the reading of the word from 1st John chapter 2

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I'm going to be reading verses 18 through 23 this is

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God's holy and infallible word Little children it is the last hour and As you have heard that the

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Antichrist is coming Even now many Antichrists have come

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By which we know that it is the last hour They went out from us, but they were not of us

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For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us But they went out that they might be made manifest that none of us.

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None of them were of us But you have an anointing from the

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Holy One and You know all things I have not written to you because you do not know the truth

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But because you know it and that no lie is of the truth

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Who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the

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Christ? He is Antichrist who denies the Father and the

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Son Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either.

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He acknowledges the Son has the Father also

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May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his most excellent word.

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Please pray with me. Oh Lord, we thank you that you have anointed us

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That you have put your name upon us that you have marked us you have sealed us you have

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Made us one with you. Oh Lord, give us great wisdom to discern the times

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That we might see all of the error that comes into the church that we might preserve your holy spotless blameless bride

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And we ask all this in Jesus name Amen, please be seated

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The bulletin says John 6 and that's because of me I earlier in the week was going to add a supplemental message to help us with some background in First John and I opted very late in the game to return to first John Chapter 2 so there was no fault in the people who prepare or produce the bulletins.

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The fault is all mine the title of the message today if you would like to write it there in place of what is in the bulletin is acknowledge the

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Son Acknowledge the Son and our text again is first John chapter 2 verses 18 through 23

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For those of you who had benefit from an outline, I placed it in the bulletin I should say in slack this morning and I'll give it to you now very briefly

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The first point is they went out from us they went out from us and Second you have an anointing from the

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Holy One They went out from us referring to the Antichrist the false teachers the distinction drawn between them and the people of God you have an anointing from the

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Holy One John has taken us into a very deep place of introspection

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He's called us to look at ourselves in our lives. Are we walking in the light?

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Do we love our brother? Do we keep his commandments do we walk in his ways?

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we know there is in us a lot of wretchedness and a lot of Sin that needs to be exposed by the

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Word of God and the light of Christ But there is also a very present danger trouble from without The church is waging a war against the flesh internally

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But she's also waging a war outwardly and there are false sons within the pale There are false teachers who come into the church and they deny that Jesus is the

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Christ in the late 1990s

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Josh Harris wrote a very famous book. I kissed dating.

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Goodbye and the world that I traveled in it was a very landmark book along with homeschooling families and people who cared about doing things the right way when it came to marriage and To family life to be pure and all those things in the passage of time this young man now has was a pastor of a very large church and he started to recant his writings said that he received a lot of information from people that he heard a lot of people in the purity culture and the

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Christian courtship model so he began to reconsider his position and Then a little while later, he says

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I have to resign my pastorate Because I I think the faith is broader than the narrow confines and the limits of my own group so I need to have a broader view of my faith and Then shortly after that a year or so later.

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He posts and made widely known that He and his wife are getting a divorce

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The I kiss dating goodbye guy divorces wife and six months later the same man says by all objective markers,

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I am NOT a Christian and he posts a picture later at the gay pride event wherever he was

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No one here as my wife pointed out to me denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh

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I don't know that we made struggles in this doctrine in our church. I've never heard anybody remotely say anything like that But how does an ordained man raised in a

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Christian home Believing generally speaking right doctrine in many ways

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How does he go from that? to now an apostate

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How is it possible Well, it's several turns he made bad decisions in our epistle here in 1st

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John The dating of which probably is in the 60s of the first century

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That's very important to our proper understanding of the text John says this

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Little children those that term of endearment that term of affection

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That a teacher has for his disciples John really loves his people

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Some have argued that this is the church at Ephesus. I think there's probably some good reason to think that John loves the people of God, but he says

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It is the last hour and we're faced with what Pastor Mark was teaching us this morning in Sunday school

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Either John is wrong or this is uninspired and neither of those are true

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How is John speaking about the last hour It is that word we get the root of the word we get eschatology and it means last

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Finally That which is coming to the end redemptively the first century church recognized the arrival of the

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Messiah in his sinless life his authoritative teaching his sacrificial death his triumphant resurrection his defeat of sin and death his glorious Ascension they all recognize this surely is the last days and Given the fact this is probably written in the mid to late 60s of the first century

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There is something coming This generation is not going to pass away.

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In fact, we're not going to make it through this decade another ten years Jerusalem is going to be sacked

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The nation of Israel will as we know it be no more

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Probably my third Pop culture reference of all time now

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REM song. It's the end of the world as we know it That's what happened to Israel the destruction of the city and the temple in 80 70

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Now when we read this we we see there's a capital a on Antichrist and you maybe would hope that the pastor would give you the identity of the

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Antichrist Maybe could have published that we can get some crowds in here. So they're gonna tell you who the Antichrist is today

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But a little lesson in hermeneutics a little lesson in your own Bible reading we have to Go into the first century

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We have to understand what was being said then and then we take those principles and we apply it to the time in which we live

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What we do is Trump was shot Israel is bombing

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Yemen and they're at war with several countries. Is this the end of the world?

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We take our current events and try to read it back into prophecy and scripture versus the other way around We read the scripture.

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We we go deep into the Word of God and then we discern the times It's not the opposite The times don't tell us the word tells us

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And in the original there is no capitalization for Antichrist, which is disappointing probably to us but it is in the singular and Paul talks about a man of sin, but this idea of Antichrist is exclusively a

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Johannine Construction he's the only writer in the in the Bible that says

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Antichrist He's the only one he says it here in first John and he says it in Revelation so What does it mean it is?

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the last That which is coming to an end. I believe it is the

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Jewish nation the Jewish system the cultists the culture the sacrifices the temple and Even if they slaughtered the red heifer a few weeks ago.

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I don't know if they did or not. There is no temple there There is no priesthood there.

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There is no king there So all those ideals about Israel they've since these days they have been wiped away

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What does it mean? The hour has come the last the eschatos hour

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Hora Well, this is a definite space of time.

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It's like our word hour But it also refers to a season it's a finite season a

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Limited time or opportunity a Limited chance to reach a goal to fulfill a purpose a limited period to accomplish the

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Lord's specific Purpose the fatal hour the hour of death the time when one must undergo the destiny appointed him by God Jesus used this language when he was tried to be pushed out into the public square as the

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Messiah my hour Has not yet come But John says the hour

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Has come it's the last hour And if you think about a couple of things that are happening we had an early really revival of religion in Israel where Thousands upon thousands of people are coming to Christ think about the

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Pentecost event and the things that would happen after But in the passage of years 30 years later, let's say a little bit more than 30 years later

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Some of the church was shrinking back Some of the church says well, we believe in the

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Father. We're not so sure if if Jesus is the eternal word incarnate

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We're not sure if Jesus is the Messiah we see it a connection to our

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Judaism, but now we're maybe coming back in the

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Gentile world you can imagine the scribes the philosophers coming into the

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Church and as we sang today the tares growing right up alongside the wheat and the corn

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It's the enemy All those under the sway of their sin nature

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They are bent on sabotage and destruction of Christ Church The hour the last hour is at hand

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We have you have heard the murmurings the Antichrist is coming then

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John says even now many Antichrists have come and This word in its essence means this one who opposes

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Christ very simply from our English Translation we gather that There's another one that maybe is not

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Perfect for this application. It maybe has an application for the man of sin and the end of times in Revelation it's the idea of one who puts himself in the place of or the enemy of the

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Messiah There is a lot of evidence that Titus sat on Thrones in Jerusalem that he went into the temple and desecrated it.

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Maybe it was fulfilled there. It's possible But now at this time

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Antichrist is coming even now many Antichrists have come and the revelation of these

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Antichrists is Confirmation that it is the last hour

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John uses this as I said five times and he uses it to speak of the corrupt power and influence hostile to Christian interests

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Especially that which is at work in the false teachers who have come from the very bosom of the church and are engaged in the dissemination of error

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Josh Harris had a following and Now he has disaffected people who said you've ruined my life

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He's apologized to them and now he probably has a following again to be leading those people astray from Christ in his gospel inside the church

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So you think about all that we do in our covenant duties and responsibilities all that we care about We have to be vigilant with our swords drawn our chests out

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We need to be ready to shout down and expel and purge anti -christian doctrine in the church

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But now in this time in which we live We have to be nice to everyone.

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We have to accept everyone They're really nice people. There's no way they could be Antichrist there's no way they could be against Christ in his church.

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I'm sure there are people in the first century who Thought that about these folks.

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It's also another thing. I'd like to point out these people are

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Readily known by the audience apparently they now reading and hearing

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John's letter They've seen people who have been in the church

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They've made a lot of noise and they've maybe brought in some heterodox doctrine and now they're leaving the church and John says

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They were with us, but now they're gone They were went out from us and they didn't come back

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I pray that Josh Harris repents and comes back I pray that Josh Harris will be restored and reconciled to his wife and he'll ask for forgiveness to his very faithful parents for Abandoning the faith and dishonoring his family and all that But if he leaves and he stays gone we could say that he is an antichrist type of person

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He was a pastor sold million books spoke at all the conferences had all the influence

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They went out from us they were not of us

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For if they had been of us They would have continued with us the revelation of anti -christian teaching

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Can you think of some in the church today? gender sexuality obedience headship

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How many things all of these ideas are in the church now? lady pastors

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Homosexual pastors Antichrist doctrine has come in We'd say it never happened to us.

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So the question is what are we doing today to make sure this doesn't happen? 70 years from now at Ascension It may not happen next year

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But but what are we doing to fortify our defenses in orthodoxy to ensure that?

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Christ denying doctrine doesn't come in Today we can't tolerate any error.

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We know that there's the church is a place for people to grow and to To be sanctified and to grow up in their knowledge of God But if someone comes in and says

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I don't believe in the deity of Christ They can't be a member of the church that's what's happening here in the first century in places like Ephesus and Over time they reveal themselves

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People can be great academic Theologians, but but their life betrays them

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They start to show signs of their unbelief. They they don't love Christ.

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Really they love to be Honored in the streets they like to write books

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They like to have the applause of men, but they don't love Christ They Went out from us

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But they were not of us. Oh Lord, don't ever let that happen. Please. Please don't ever let it happen to us here

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Don't let one of these covenant children go we trust you it's not gonna be our methodology.

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It's not gonna be our commitment It's gonna be the grace of God It's gonna be the mercy of the

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Lord Jesus Christ Grabbing our children and not letting go and our grandchildren and grabbing them and not letting them go

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So we cry out to you. Oh God, let none of our descendants go this way Please Lord, then we have to do our part to walk in that obedience and that faithfulness

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To do our part to ensure that this doesn't happen

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The Church is always in danger. There's always precarious things happening in the life of the church

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False teachers are here now exposed Isn't it terrible they came in?

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They lived among them. They wreaked havoc for a period of time and then they're gone they sowed seeds of discord and bad doctrine and Unbelief and the doctrine of demons and then they left the church

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John says their unrepentance their departure from the faith Was their manifestation that they were not of us

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So it's a sober -minded morning on point one. The church is under attack

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The church is always under attack The point two is very exciting and it's good news

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You have an anointing from the Holy One look again at verse 20

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You have an anointing

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This word is chrisma. That's where we hear of the term chrismation from the

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Eastern Orthodox This is what anointing is to anoint something is to smear on Imagine taking a jug of olive oil and smearing it on the head person

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Sometimes they would make an ointment out of other herbs and be thicker and they would put it on different places of the body

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And in the Hebrew world, it was usually prepared by them with aromatic herbs

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And it was the inaugural ceremony for the priesthood It was also done for the

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Kings I remember very famously the anointing of Queen Elizabeth the second The priest put oil on her and put a cross on her top of her chest and she was anointed as the monarch of England Sometimes it was put on the prophets.

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I want you to think about this for a moment the three offices of Christ Prophet priest

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King all speak of anointing all are anointed positions and by it in the

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Eastern Orthodox tradition. This is the moment in the the the sign the seal of being endued with the

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Holy Spirit and divine gifts John speaks nothing of that here some ceremony another sacrament.

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He doesn't say that He says if you be in Christ you have the anointing You've been consecrated

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You've been set apart for this very holy purpose and here in our context grammatically it's used of the gifting of the

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Holy Spirit as The efficient aid and getting a knowledge of the truth

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Which is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ by a show of hands if you can answer this question

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Have you ever encountered error and You couldn't quote chapter and verse but you are absolutely sure that this was contrary to biblical teaching

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Can you ever say that anybody say that raise your hand? That's almost everybody

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The Holy Spirit has so come into the believer and most certainly into the church

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That we now discern truth and error And one of the beautiful things about body life is some crazy doctrine comes into your mind

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Go talk to a couple of Christians about it. Talk to the elders of the church About it. You might find this new idea that you have is not orthodox

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What a gift of the Holy Spirit to say you're going the wrong direction come back into the fold the church is the pillar and support the buttress of The truth and the reason the church is the pillar and buttress of the truth

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Is she's filled with the Holy Spirit You have an anointing from the

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Holy One You're not like the Antichrist. You're not like the pagans in the street. You have been set apart

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You have been sealed. You've been washed. You've been purified and you now discern the truth over against error

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Praise the Lord What a great God what a salvation

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There is in the Lord Jesus Christ Once you look back at last week's text verses 15 through 17

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This idea of hagios of holy the first two sacred

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Set apart for God Exclusively his

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I Have to pause here for some application your profess faith in Christ, and I've extolled all these benefits that you enjoy

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From Christ Does your life reflect this exclusivity of Your consecration to God when

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I look at your life. Do I see from start to finish from A to Z from Morning to sundown and as you sleep whatever you are whatever you do

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Are you set apart for God and exclusively his? We should repent those ways in which this is not true

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Positionally by decree by our identity in Christ by the

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Salvation we have in Christ by our union with Christ. We are the Saints.

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We are the Holy Ones We are sacred We are set apart for God.

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We are Exclusively his our lives are not our own If we're set apart by God and for God makes verse 15 through 17 make even more sense

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Do not love the world the things in the world If anyone loves the world the love of the

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Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh

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Lust of the eyes and the pride of life It's not of the father but is of the world and The world is passing away in the lust of it

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But he who does the will of God abides forever to be worldly Is to share a likeness with the world to be a holy one with the unction the anointing the smearing of God's favor and blessing

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Then we need to have a greater and ever -increasing likeness of nature with our

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Lord We need to be different than the world it takes us to another element of this and it says

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Verse 21. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth. This has been a constant theme in John's epistle, but because you do know it and no lie is of the truth

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Two weeks ago when we did the section from verses 12 through 14 We learned and were reminded that even

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The most immature child knows his father Today we welcome for the first time into the church

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Thomas Stevens is here today a Covenant child of God has been brought by his parents the kid is how old is the kid a week old not even a week old

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You guys are crazy. Nobody does that. I Like that you brought your child.

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It was one week old not yet a week old Into the house of God welcome

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Thomas to your home among God's people Even the most immature child.

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I tell you right now that boy knows his mama and It's a good few days.

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He's gonna know his father just like the little ones and John The Christian knows that Jesus is the

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Christ That he came in the flesh That he died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he rose again on the third day

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And even now he sits on high Reigning and ruling the universe for his glory and namesake

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Will never depart from that doctrine Will never look to the right or to the left and that's why this practical godliness is so important because If we be like Josh Harris we'll maybe compromise out here on a smaller issue and That gets us a step closer to compromising over here and before you know it someone within the pale someone in the body

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Leaves the church and leaves the faith and divorces their wife Let's be on guard at this thing.

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We our foot is down on the accelerator for the kingdom of God But we're checking our flanks

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You might be catching some fire it might be catching some flack we need to defend Fortify our defenses as a family.

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You might be trucking in the right direction. Are you letting some stuff in on the side? Well, we're on mission for Christ.

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We're advancing the kingdom. We're fulfilling the Great Commission. We're on fire for God Well keep doing that but glance in your rearview mirrors

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Your tires may be wobbling. You might be catching some Fire and in fact, you might even be getting shot by so -called friendly fire within the church

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But we rise above these things because we have this anointing because we have this union with Christ We know all things we believe

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Jesus has come in the flesh We know the impossible is true that he is

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God in man. He is in that one person two natures No diminishment in his humanity.

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No diminishment in his divinity He is the only one he is Christ the Lord And we say amen

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We rejoice Jesus that you are who you are exclusively

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We vow to walk in your truth well, finally

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Let's look at the last section in verse 22 and 23 Who is a liar?

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One of the things I say when we think about the third commandment is As Christians, it's very hard.

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It's very painful. But when we are disobedient we lie about Christ and his salvation

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We've been named with that name. We are holy and sacred. We have been given the capacity to not sin

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Indwelling of the Holy Spirit We lie about Jesus and his salvation

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But do we call a spade a spade in the church today someone who denies essential

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Christian doctrine? Do we not use the force of language liar? We don't use it that way as well.

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He's he's off on this It's a little off on a couple of these things. He's a nice guy

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Says in verse 22 who is a liar a deceiver, you know who the deceiver is, right?

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liars take on the the image of their father the enemy the evil one the

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Satan the serpent Who is a liar, but he who denies?

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That Jesus is the Christ He's one who falsifies misrepresents, of course, this is a false teacher within the within the church

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He distorts he misleads But I'm here today and I hope you're listening

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Josh Harris But you are a liar because a liar is a false or faithless man one who breaks the faith

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You're a liar Josh Harris repent of your lies Come back to Jesus be on guard

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To the deceptions that come within in a closing statement that Brings it all together for our conclusion in verse 23.

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It says whoever denies the Son Does not have the father either

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I was talking to a man who is very rare. He's very skillful Jehovah's Witness theologian

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He had common ground so about God the Father we can do this with our people we like in the media and Jews They said well, we're not too far apart.

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I believe in the father. I don't believe Jesus is the Christ he said We have no common ground

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That they were gonna inch up a little bit closer. I believe in the father We have no common ground.

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Oh Ben Shapiro is so nice We have no common ground with him whoever denies the

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Son Does not have the father either remember Jesus interacting with the

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Jews Abraham is our father Jesus said if you really were a child of Abraham you'd believe in me because he saw my day and he rejoiced

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No quarter on these issues JWs they're okay

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Mormons. They're okay all of these aberrant doctrines if you deny the

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Exclusivity of the Son you do not have a relationship with a father either and there's no possibility

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You can have the sealing the anointing of the Holy Spirit either

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It's time for a stronger More robust Apologetic of Orthodox Christian doctrine because Everyone's going to find some common ground

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Until they lie and take us away and make someone in our church an

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Antichrist a Lord may it never be so but you take heart today

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You have the Chrisma you have the anointing

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That which was prepared for the prophets priests and kings has now been sealed upon the people of God walk in his ways remain vigilant pursue obedience ever repenting of sin and even more so ever

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Rejoicing and giving thanks for the great work of salvation in Christ. Amen Let's pray together

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Oh Lord thank you for letting us go into the first century and to bring the principle of false teaching and all of those elements and Lord we we almost blow by it because we say no one's denying

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That Jesus is the Christ, but maybe we love the world

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Maybe we're pursuing the lust of the flesh and the eyes and the pride of life maybe we're pursuing those things in the world which are passing away and we ask you

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O Lord to Reveal these things to us that we might wage the proper warfare